Hi,finalizing purchase of Freedom 32 and was thinking of changing some of the running rigging right after. Was planning on doing it myself though I never done it before.Trying to find out if there is a place to find out what length, diameter and type to use. I think it is sailnet that has a database where you punch in the boat and year and model and it calculates the diameter and length depending if you having the lines run to cockpit or not and then you just order them there. Maybe I got the website wrong . For now I'm thinking the main sail line and jib since those are the ones that take on lots of pressure and they seem a little worn out. Also any recommendations on how to change them? I'm thinking just connecting new line to the old one and pulling it trough, or there something else I'm supposed to do?Forgive my ignorance.

That is pretty much what I would do (attach new to old and pull through). Having done that one before, I would make sure I didn't get too big as it might get stuck at the top of the mast and become separated. I also would recommend a strong attachment from the old to the new. It is a pain when the new line separates at the top of the mast from the old line. Best

You could try getting a very long length of thin line, say 5mm or 1/4", stitch and tape it to the free end of one halyard, then pull the halyard through (don't forget to make the other end of the thin line fast on deck, as the weight of the halyard will pull the thin stuff through like lightning). Then you have all of the old halyard on deck, you can inspect it, wash it or bin it, and measure it for length and diameter. Use some more of the thin line to do the same for the other halyards. It's much easier to pull a thin line and a thick one through masthead sheaves, rather than two thick lines joined end to end. Afterwards, you can easily wind the thin stuff round the mast to stop chafe whilst the boat is laid up or out of commission, since you don't have any shrouds to get tangled up in.

Stitching a small loop of whipping twine into the end of the new halyards lets you do this easily, every winter season. It'll save a lot of wear, and dirt, letting the halyards last longer, and giving you the chance to wash and inspect them. If you put the lines in a washing machine, use a cold wash cycle and don't tumble dry them. A friend did that and found everything was just a foot or two short; a lot of new rope was purchased!

Ditto what Castaway said! Especially stitching the messenger line to the halyard. Stitching is easy and no worries about the tape pulling out under a little stress. Washing your old halyard could possibly save you a couple hundred dollars. If the halyard is still worn out, you have an accurate measure for a new one.

When you order new halyards, make sure you have them add "reeving eye"s to them, and then use messenger line to remove/re-run the halyards. As our boat is in the hard 6-7 month of the years (Great Lakes) and the mast is stored outside, we have found this a good way to preserve our halyards in the off season. We actually had a rodent get inside our mast for the off season, who proceeded to gnaw through every wire and line (and we were not the only victim). Cost about $1000 to replace all the wires (lighting, windex, ground, VHF), but we only lost our messenger lines and not the halyards -- now we plug the bottom of the mast with a wood plate.

Be carefull when using messenger halyards. This is a great idea but I did this one year and used messengers too small, about 1/8” I think. These messengers were small enough to jump off the block, jam beside the block, and could not be moved. Crane service was required to get re-rigged in the spring.

Agree re: the messenger line getting "unseated" from the pulley, although I do put a fair amount of tension on the messenger line to present such (and check them before they re-step the mast in the spring). We did have a foredeck pulley issue once, but just dragged my son up on a bosuns chair to resolve it.

I leave an old halyard in place and replace it with my current halyard. I've had the main halyard messenger jump and had to go up the mast on the jib halyard with a boat hook and was able to get it back on the sheave.